— 27 — JOBS. SCHMIDT 



Gadiis I'h-ens Gadns callnrias 



15. Havne Fjord (Faxe Bay; S.W. coast); depth 11 meters 



29. August 1904 

 2 hauls (surf, temp.: 9-55°; bottom temp.: 9-50°) 



none of 0-group 

 nor older 



These investigations show that the distribution of the bottom stages of the cod young 

 occurring in shallow water is very unequal on the coasts of Iceland. Thus, it seemed most 

 remarkable, though after what has been said on the drifting of the pelagic stages readily 

 understood, that on the coasts of the island where the principal spawning of the cod took 

 place, i.e. the south coast and the southern part of the west coast, relativ- 

 ely very few of the bottom stages were obtained. On the other hand these occur- 

 red in such enormous quantities on the eastern and northern coasts, i.e. where 

 none or but few cod spawn, that there is perhaps no other place in the world where they 

 occur in such numbers as here.^ The discovery of these young cod in quantities in the spring 

 on the east and north coasts (see list above for 1904, hauls with the eel seine, e.g. No. 2, 

 p. 24, also Fig. 2, p. 38) and also our marking experiments ^ have enabled me to show that 

 the young overwinter and grow up in the cold water on these coasts, where they thus live 

 under quite different conditions to those under which they were spawned. This gives us a 

 striking example of how far less sensitive towards outer conditions the young growing fish 

 are than the old spawning fish, and we can further see that we may draw but few con- 

 clusions in reality from the distribution of the growing stages as to the spawning places 

 of a species, and as to the conditions required by the species for reproduction (cf. p. 11—12). 



The remaining data with regard to the occurrence of the bottom stages at Iceland 

 may be summarised as follows. The bottom stages were not found at Iceland before in 

 June and extremely few (at the south coast) even so early. They were not found in any 

 great numbers before the latter half of July, namely, at the north coast (Skialfandi Bay), 

 where the majority had a length of ca. SVa cm. Even then they were there not yet 

 common along the coastal margins, which was indeed only the case in August, at which 

 time the majority had a length of 4—5 cm. On the east coast we did not find the young 

 of the year earlier than towards the end of August,^ in spite of the numerous hauls made_ 



1 See List 2, p. 24, and Chart fig. 2, p. 38 for 1904, where the young of the coalfish, the distribution 

 of which is quite different, are also noted. It may he remarked with regard to this Chart, that the 

 stations noted have all been chosen in such a way that so far as the time of year is coucerued both cod 

 and coalfish young might occur, for the east coast the data, which are for the spring apply to the 

 young of the previous year, i. e. the young of 1903, as the young of the year had not yet appeared 

 by the middle of August, when the investigations in 1904 came to an end. 



- Joes. Schmidt: Marking experiments on Plaice and Cod in Icelandic "Waters (Meddel. fra Kom- 

 missionen for Havundersogelser, Sei'ie: Fiskeri, Bind II, Nr. 6, 1907). 



4* 



